Update #4: Speedrunning + EVEN MORE POLISH!

Welcome to Castle on the Coast’s 4th major update! This one features a dedicated speedrunning mode! We recently ran a beta test, so thanks to our testers many bugs were found and squished.

SPEEDRUNNING

I’ve always dreamed of building a speedrunning community around Castle on the Coast. To help invigorate such a community, a speedrunning mode was added!

It replaces the compass UI element with a timer, tracking hours, minutes, and seconds (down to 2 decimals).

Cutscenes are not interesting for a speedrunner, so while in speedrun mode all cutscenes are automatically skipped for a seamless platforming experience.

A tedious aspect of speedrunning is dealing with RNG. In Castle on the Coast, this only came into play with boss battles. All bosses have either their random aspects removed or random numbers seeded with a set number. Normal players shouldn’t notice a difference.

There are some settings that can be abused during a run (removing invisible walls COUGH COUGH), so those buttons are disabled while doing a run.

Another handy feature: the timer is paused when the game is paused! Now you can take bathroom breaks mid-run.

I figured nobody could beat me at my own game, so I decided to go ahead and take the world record for MYSELF MUAHAHAHA!! You don't stand a GHOST of a chance at beating me! AHAHAHA!!! This video is fraught with spoilers. Avert your eyes if you want to experience the game yourself. I'm hoping to give an idea of how much fun this game can be to run.

Its worth noting the game takes ~4 hours to complete normally. Like most games, speed runs cut down playtime by a significant degree, especially in games where there are very few mechanics that intentionally make players wait.

BIGGER CHANGES

A focus was placed on reducing the initial information overload that comes from starting a new game relating to collectibles.

• Updated game engine from Unreal 4.21 to Unreal 4.25.
• made the lighting in the overall game brighter by 40ish percent.
• NPCs no longer repeat lines when getting in their proximity. If you want to hear a proximity line again, talk to them long enough and they will repeat.
• Each star counter on HUD hides themself if they are equal to 0.
• Flower collectible orbs updated to have varying shapes and more similar, pinkish coloring.
• Changed magical effect on tree tower tops to not be confused with a star collectible.

TIGHTER CONTROLS

Some modifications were made to controls for a better platforming experience.

• Now you can dive while jetpacking.
• Now you can spin while jetpacking.
• Now you can dive while sitting.
• Now you can spin out of sitting.
• Now you can dive off a wall while wall running.
• Now you can use the dive input to swim down while swimming.
• D-pad now works in menus.
• Drop shadow added to George for easier landing.

RANDOM STUFF

• Aleandra's attacks are no longer random, but drawn from a set sequence.
• Random aspects of Aleandra's movement are now seeded to be identical every run.
• Random aspects of Vendrick's movement are now seeded to be identical every run.
• Replaced sound: car drifting loop.
• Replaced sound: car idle loop.
• Replaced sound: car driving loop.
• Replaced sound: car into air.
• Replaced sound: car start.
• Added sound: boss shield damage.
• Added sound: crate impact.
• Stunt park dimension course entrance is friendlier to cameras now.
• Crates respawn with a grow animation for IMMERSION!
• Reverb has been adjusted for each area. More tweaks to come probably.
• Sound plays when bouncing off tree tower top magical effect.
• Sammy lines that conflict with text have been updated.
• Shifted some of vendricks NPC lines into his list of proximity lines.
• Dark void beneath falling pillars now kills objects that touch it.
• Falling pillars now have a respawn animation.
• Made it harder to skip past the sky dimension using a specific gate-skipping bug (which is left in for funsies).
• Added a... button... to settings.

BUG FIXES

• Attempted fix for Aleandra boss not resetting upon player respawn.
• Return to menu and quit button display different question text depending on game mode.
• Ejecting from vehicles no longer toggles jetpack.
• Flying board allows you to use B to eject and has eject instructions UI added.
• Camera is now fully functional on tightrope and ziplines. Before it wouldn’t switch to auto-mode.
• Running out of air, then grabbing an air bubble, now prevents drowning damage from happening.
• Shark no longer refills air upon snacking on George.
• Platforms in sky dimension no longer flicker.
• Large Crates check for player before respawning.
• Filled gaps around forest area border.
• Set cliff models in forest and stunt park to use precise collision.
• You can no longer get trapped in a specific Lava area pillar.
• Elevator buttons no longer spam sounds when standing on edge.
• Frogs can now give up on reaching destinations, preventing them from getting stuck for an eternity of obstacles.
• Doors now affect nav meshes so that characters don’t get stuck trying to pass through them.
• Added lip to platform at end of ocean dimension jetstream with damage walls to prevent getting launched into an abyss.
• Blue key pedestal in forest adjusted to touch ground.
• Fixed some wonky logic behind how NPCs speak, no difference will be noticed.
• Aleandra not longer twitches while sitting down in her post-fight cutscene after falling over.
• Fixed a bunch of stuff that resulted from updating the engine.

Thanks to those who participated in the beta test program and gave feedback! The input really helped give direction for improving the final product!

WRAPPING UP

Update is available on PC and Mac. For the few who have Steam Beta Keys, the update is live on Steam as well.

WHATS NEXT?

Probably more bug fixing and polish! We may have some exciting news to announce, but we need to make sure things are solidified first.

-Peter